nailbox - October Review

Yey, October's nailbox is HERE and the colours are perfect for my 30 Days of Colour Challenge. This month we have an autumn themed box with three gorgeous polish for the season.

First up is Rimmel's 'Caramel Cupcake' what a great name and also a lovely polish. This was opaque in two coats and it's been a while since I bought or used any Rimmel polishes and they've made the brush much thicker. Just one swipe with this bad boy and my little fingers where DONE!

Really liked this polish and used this as my base and to create the gradient on the manicure below. 

Next is another Gel Effect polish from Nails Inc, I think this is the third polish I've received from nailbox from this brand, This is a gorgeous burgundy/purple colour and one of my favourite colours. This again was opaque in two coats and in the gradient came out much brighter than in the bottle.

Last but not least is a effects polish from Essie called ' Summit of Style' a lovely packed glitter polish with gold glitters of two different sizes. No need for fishing with this glitter just one dip and apply to the nail deposits plenty of glitter. In fact it's so packed in the bottle I wasn't sure if it was in a clear base or if there was black glitters in there too.

This month's nail care items were some nail scissors, useful because I'm always hunting for my pair, and some Drying Drops from OPI. I did use these when doing my Thanks Giving manicure, bit hard to tell if it dried the polish any quicker as I ALWAYS use a quick dry topcoat. Also when applying to the nails I wasn't sure how to apply it so it covered all my nail. Something to experiment with, if you have any tips or experience with drying drops let me know.

Here is the manicure I created using all the polishes in this month's nailbox and is also my manicure for the next prompt in the 30 Days of Colour Challenge 'Fall Gradient'. 

nailbox - a monthly nail polish subscription service

In June I stumbled upon nailbox, the first nail polish subscription service in the UK. I'd missed two boxes already so was keen to sign up and see what I'd receive, this was something I'd been looking for...

Nailbox ship their boxes out in the 21st of each month and I picked up mine from the Royal Mail Depo on the 25th as it had been delivered when I was at work and I think needed to be signed for. This is what was inside...

Each box contains four full size bottles of nail varnish and a nail care item. In June the polishes were:

Essie - Roarrrange (A bright orange creme)

Seche Vite - Fast Drying Top Coat

Tanya Burr -Mischief Managed (Red Creme)

Nails Inc - Colville Mews (Nude Creme) 

The nail care item was some cuticle nippers from Elegant Touch which I haven't tried yet and I do try not to cut my cuticles.

I used ALL the polishes to create a gradient starting off with the Nails Inc polish as my base and sponging on the other polishes to create the following manicure.

I'm familiar with Essie and Nails Inc as brands but hadn't tried any of Nails Inc Gel Effect polishes before, the colour was lovely. The red and the orange worked great for the gradient and blended well.

The only couple of complaints I have was that the cap on my Nails Inc bottle perhaps wasn't on tight enough and the bottle top was crusty when taking out the brush which left the polish a little on the thick side, some polish thinner sorted that out. I also wasn't keen on the brush in the Essie polish, I've not had a problem with Essie brushes before, it just seemed a little fanned out.

I was impressed with the Tanya Burr polish having never used this brand before. I topped it all off with Seche Vite which I have used many time before and a new bottle does wonders to blend and dry the gradient.

Overall, very happy with my first box, looking forward to seeing what's in Julys. Have you subscribed to nailbox? If so tell me what you thought of this month's box.

Phone Case Inspired Mani

I recently changed my phone case and thought that the pattern on my old one would make for an interesting nail design.

I think I'm also finding my own style and the type of manicures I like to do most. The last few manicures I did in the last 31 day challenge were around water colour type of effects or abstract art designs. These are what I enjoy most and think look great on my nails.

So here was my next challenge and I managed to dig out quite a few of my untrieds in order to create this look.

I started off with my favorite off-white polish 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' from OPI as my base. I used an ultra fine long thin nail brush to start the design. I started with black to create the lined diamond shapes you can see above, making them using a variety of long and different shaped lines.

Then I used that same long tipped brush to paint on the other colours around the outside of the black shapes. I started with the orange, then moved on to the pink, purple and finished with the light blue, dark blue and anywhere I thought needed darkening up I went over with the black. Here's the finished result.

Super tricky to get a good pic of this and to capture the colours. Here's a good old close up so you can see the design and get a better idea of how it was created.

Very, very happy with this design and will be looking out for more inspiration from everyday things.

I also had a little splurg a little while ago and here is one of the goodies I horded. Essie's 'Dive Bar' this was a stop gap between my Nail Art attempts.

This was two coats and Top Coat, the first coat was rather patchy but second coat went on like a dream. This polish is a very dark teal with a colour shift to purple, my favorite colours. What are yours?

Day 25 & 26 of Challenge - Complement and Contrast and Fishtail Braid

I've wanted to do this combination for a while and saw this manicure on Pinterest AGES ago using Sally Hansen lustre shine polishes in Azure and Scarab. This was months and months before these polishes started appearing in Pound World, and I never thought I'd get my sticky little mitts on them.

Not contrasting so much this manicure but these polishes go VERY well together. So well in fact that I didn't in the end use the sponging technique to create the gradient, as the polish wasn't quite dry and was creating bald patches when dabbing it on.

I ended up just painting the dark blue polish on the ends of my nails and blending it in to the base colour, worked pretty well and gorgeous colours!

Next day's theme is Fish Tail Braid, not something I have ever done on my nails or on my hair before. I watched a few tutorials on YouTube which make it look easy, it was however NOT!

Apologies for appalling picture, and messy manicure. Think this would have been better if the two purples I used were much different shades, they are too similar and merge into each other. I took this off the next morning before going to work as I thought it was a bit garish.

I will attempt this again I think, and pick my colours more carefully... 5 days to go and 5 days behind!

Catching up with day's 9 and 10

Day 9 asked for a Red Base, and red isn't a colour I choose to wear very often, but when I do I'm pleasantly surprised. In this instance I didn't know what to pick as I have quite a number of red polishes that I have yet to try... here's a gander at them! Which one would you have chosen?

That's 10 red polishes I own and have never worn. Now some can be justified, the essie which is a beautiful pillar box red, was part of a set I bought from TK Maxx, and my first essie polishes. Two of the the OPI's were presents, oh and the Nail's Inc and Leighton Denny were freebies from a magazine purchase, so that's half of them justified for.

So I chose, OPI's 'Affair in Red Square' for my Red Base manicure and topped it off with Orly's 'Star Spangled Banner'. Picture does this NO justice and I'd be interested to see how opaque the Orly polish would be on it's own, as this really has depth. The micro glitter really looks suspended in the polish. This is going to be my go to manicure if I want red.

Day 10 was glitter base and the last few days with work and training all day Saturday have left me little time to embellish these manicures with some nail art. However the polish I chose below, Maybellines Color Show in 'Rose Chic' from the Crystallize range needs nothing else. 

I can't believe I have NEVER used this polish before, it's freaking gorgeous! Formula is great, finish is slightly textured but not too bumpy and the other thing about this polish is it's one of those that when applied, doesn't look messy AT ALL. You could get a monkey to apply this to your nails and it would STILL look fabulous. I have no idea if you can still get these Crystallize polishes and looking online the range they had in the US was even more awesome!

I'm STILL wearing this, and don't want to take off, and I need to do Day 11's manicure. I do have a feeling that it's gonna need a soaking in acetone and wrapping in foil for removal.

Day 5 & 6 of 2015 Nail Art Challenge

Time to get the old dotting tools out! 

And this is what I cooked up. I nicked the idea from Pinterest and Paula Passions. Boy is this a gorgeous manicure, colours just pop and I did not want to take this manicure off. I think this is my favourite manicure of this years challenge so far, I will DEFINITELY be doing this again. Polishes used are....

Dark Blue Base - Revlon Top Speed in Royal

Gold - China Glaze in Mingle with Kringle

Aqua/Teal - Sephora for OPI - Mermaid to Order

Purple - Revlon ColorStay in Amethyst

Copper - No17 in Copper

Day 6's theme was Half and Half, wasn't sure how to interpret this, but good old Google and Pinterest gave me this idea. By the way I'm still trying to go through my untried polishes so trying to incorporate these polishes into designs. Two., no THREE untrieds used below!

Base is Models Own Hyper Gel in 'Naked Glow, dark blue creme is 'Stormy Blue by Make Up Academy, a new line that Pound World seem to be stocking not the MUA sold in Superdrug. The Glitter in the picture is Essie, 'Stoke of Brilliance'. Kinda worked, kinda didn't, wasn't too bothered about taking it off, apart from the usual Glitter removal struggle. Meh! I NEED a peal off base coat that works or a glue that I can use which will be quarter of the price. 

Teal Ombre Manicure

After my trip to the States and reflecting on the polishes I bought, there are two clear colours that I lean to. Blue and Purple. So in the last week I've started swatching my polishes and grouping them into colour types to review where I have duplicates and also identify polishes that I can use for an ombre manicure.

The above seems to work really well, although the lighter shades are very subtly different. For this look I used:

Thumb - Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Fairy Teal

Index finger - Sinful Color in Savage (This dry's matt so will need topcoat)

Middle Finger - OPI in Can't Find My Czechbook

Ring Finger - Vivo in Someday

Little Finger - Essie is Where's My Chaffeur

I'm pretty sure I can also do a similar manicure in purples too. Overall I'm happy with the effect, even though the last three nails are very similar at first glance. What I'll try next time too is using the same polish only with white added as per this post I came accross on Pinterest.

  

Mini Manchester Haul - Color Show, Butter London and Essie

Last week when in Manchester I was very disappointed not to be able to find the Nail Polish in TK Maxx. This week I found what remained of it near the tills!

I picked up (above) Butter London's 'Henley Regatta' a green and teal micro glitter in a clear base. Sorry about the chipped nail on the swatch. Bargain price of £4.99 when these usually retail at anything from £9 upwards.

I also bought Essie's 'Where's my Chauffer?', Essie do a very good line in blue polish and this is no exception. Almost a one coater, but as the polish is a very light shade of blueish/green two coats won't hurt. This was £3.99, perfect for Spring!

I was also after some new blusher, trying to find a berry toned blusher recently has been a challenge, and finally picked up a Maybelline blusher in Plum which is close to what I'm after. Superdrug was doing buy one get one 1/2 price on all products, so picked up one of their polishes from their Crystallize collection I think. I've never seen these before, this one is called 'Nearly Black'. It's a textured black glitter polish with micro glitter in cooper and green/blue. Really hard to tell, but gorgeous. All swatches are without top coat.

Then to my delight, a seller on eBay who was selling some of the Zoya polishes I've had my eye on, had 'Dream' on their list. I thought they had made a mistake, as when I checked back later pondering on buying 'Payton' also it was Sold Out.

Anyway sure enough the polish arrived yesterday and a little disappointed with the swatch as it's not as deep or sparkly as I expected. But it's by next manicure colour so I'll try 3 coats and top coat to see if I can get the effect I'm after.

Mini Haul from BeautyBay.Com

Last week I was scanning the internet for polishes on my want list and found one, China Glaze - Electrify (Hunger Games collection). It was on a site called BeautyBay.com for the very reasonable price of £4.17 with free postage and packaging too, even for one polish.

The site has a large range of beauty products, not just nail polishes, and at very good prices. Whilst browsing I picked up another two polishes pictured above. Orly's 'Masked Ceremony' and Essie's 'Hor d'Oeuvres'. All very, very sparkly. You can't see here but the Orly one has square silver glitters and purple glitters too which I really hope you can see on the nail! This was £5.13 and the most expensive was the Essie polish at £7.48 but it's a relatively new polish.

Shipping was really quick, I ordered these on Friday evening and they arrived on Wednesday the following week. I also paid £1.50 extra for a Premier order which meant I would be sent free samples too. I received a eye shadow colour (I think) in a nude colour called 'Warm Sienna' by Jane Iredale. (Around the dinner table I've have been advised to find out if it's an eye colour to put in on my lids and see if it stings!) Anyway I'll let you know how I get on... and two small bottles of skin toner and cleanser from a make called Mario Badescu who I've never heard of. The smell of them reminds me of something my Nan would use however.

First attempt at geometric nails

Inspired by this design on Pinterest I thought I'd have a go myself and a perfect excuse to try out my 'Butler Please' Essie polish that was purchased a while ago and never worn.

The lighting in my house is rubbish, I feel no matter where I stand the light is always high and behind me. So this picture isn't really the best and makes the manicure look a lot more like a dogs dinner than it actually is!

So to achieve this look I used OPI's 'Berlin there, done that' as the base, two coats, and topped off with a Colour Club Quick Dry Top Coat before applying striping tape. I taped each nail placing the tape not directly in the left corner of each nail but a bit lower and across to almost the bottom right of the nail. 

I used Essie's 'Butler Please' to do the first section in light blue, painting from the tape to the bottom of the nail. When dry I taped again to mask the line for the dark blue colour in the opposite direction.  For this colour I used OPI's 'I Saw... U Saw... We Saw... Warsaw'. I found painting the darker colour a bit more tricky and you can see above where I smudged the colour a little on the middle nails. I used a thin nail art brush to get into the top corners where the tape met the side of my finger and a brush dipped in acetone to clean up cuticles etc. 

Another coat of quick dry Top Coat to smooth the design out and I was done. On reflection I think I'll use a lighter nude for the base and a more true dark blue as the OPI I used was a little on the green side. Anyway I should really try my own colour combination... maybe next time!

21st Birthday Manicure

So a disappointing turn of events at the hen do as we simply didn't have time to do nails. A great time was had by all despite the lack of a finely painted nails.

However, this weekend was my friend Charlotte's 21st and she asked if I could paint her nails. She had gel nails done without a colour and I was able to paint and do a design to match her dress.

I was inspired by this manicure from Beauty Tutorials, for the accent nail and Charlotte asked for horizontal striped on her thumb.

I used striping tape for the lines and started with Essies 'Wrapped in Rubies for the base colour on Charlotte's accent and thumb. I finished off with China Glaze's 'Liquid Leather' for the rest of the nails and stripes. I topped the look off with Color Club's quick dry top coat.

Very happy with the results, a great night was had by all and hopefully this manicure will last Charlotte a few more days until Wednesday when it's her actual birthday!

OPI Ink and Essie Stroke of Brilliance

In my OPI deal from Nail Polish Direct I picked up OPI's Ink a polish that's been on my want list for a wee while now. But seriously how many purple polishes does one person need?

Anyway, this isn't just any purple as it appears blue in bright light, I'm leaning more towards polishes that are Holographic or change colour at the moment. I don't think I blogged about it, but my latest favourite is OPI's Peace and Love and OPI, an amazing polish that looks so many different colours in different lights.

Anyway back to this manicure, I've added some sparkle using Essie's 'Stroke Of Brilliance' from their Luxeffect collection. It's a Blue Glitter and my thumb here shows three coats (God Only knows how I'm going to get this off). I took the more sensible method and layered it over OPI's Ink on on the ring finger on my right hand.

The Essie varnish is there to stay, and you'll need to be quick and put your quick drying top coat of choice over as soon as you can when the last layer is painted or this polish isn't going to dry anytime soon. The OPI Ink chipped quite quickly though, don't know if that was due to the dark colour and it was more noticeable, or if it was because I'd done too much cleaning this week. 

Anyway love them both!